Something about Reese

When we announced that we were moving here, an overwhelming number of people told me that Reese was the perfect age for this kind of move --kids are adaptable and she would adjust quickly they said. In reality, the transition, still ongoing, has not been easy and in the process I have learned some interesting things about Reese:

1. Reese has her priorities right. I knew this move would be hard for Reese because she would be leaving so many things she loved; her friends, her school, her house, her grandparents. These things are irreplaceable over here and no matter how much you talk up the "experience" or the "adventure" it is no substitute for the close connections we have left behind in Chicago.

2. Preschool bonds are strong. Parents of small ones, don't underestimate the value of their friendships. I am still best friends with my pre-school buddy and I would not be at all surprised if Reese stayed in touch with some of hers. She knows some really great kids! We currently Skype with many of her friends which has helped her deal with her homesickness a lot.

3. If your child knows a great kid, chances are there is a great family behind him/her. I never realized how important the families of Reese's friends would be to me and how supportive and generous they would be. Before we moved, just about everyone offered to help me out in some way while Mike was gone, entertaining Reese while I ran errands and closed up the house, etc. Even now as we plan for our visit next month, one parent has offered to host a small get-together so that Reese can be sure to see everyone while she's in town. Amazing!

4. Reese (and Quinn) give me happiness and strength. I'm going through my own transition process and it's very hard trying to help Reese weed through her emotions at the same time. But there are so many times that as a family we can forget about our new circumstances and just have fun and laugh. As parents, there are many occasions to think know our kids make life difficult, or at the very least challenging. (NOTE: In writing this post I have had to scold Reese at least 3 times for getting out of bed and playing when she should be sleeping. So, yes, kids will try your patience!)
I often speculate how living in Japan would be better/easier/more fun if Mike and I were on our own but the truth is, these two sweet kids are my reality and no matter where I am they will be the #1 reason to get up in the morning and my #1 source of joy.

We are parents and that is the ultimate adventure so...Japan...yeah, we got this.

Kamakura

If you come visit us in Japan we will likely take you to Kamakura. Kamakura used to be the political center of Japan in the 13th century when the Shogun and the military took over the government from the Emperor.

It is only about 7 miles from our house and an easy train ride. Kamakura is home to many beautiful shrines and temples. The most famous being the Giant Buddha.

The other major religion here is Shinto. Shinto Shrines are easily identified by the giant red gates. 

Kamakura is an obvious tourist destination but it's such a beautiful place filled with neat shops, food and street vendors. If you are lucky enough to receive a souvenir from us when we return home, we will have likely purchased it here.

Reese got a candy covered grape which was delicious. We also got some friend fish on a stick which was not...

Though there are many tourists here, the Japanese come here as well for festivals and for reflection. It is interesting to be among them. We saw people washing their hands so we tried it too.

This is another time when I think it would be helpful to read or speak the language. Of course you can learn a lot by observing but if we could read the signage it would have shed some light on the customs we were witnessing. We saw people throw money into the leaves at the lily pond, maybe as a tribute or simply making a wish. They leave notes at the shrine for dead loved ones or pray at the various shrines.

Kamakura is a great mix of modern life and ancient tradition. 

This is a fun destination I could return to over and over. It is always busy and there is so much to see and do in this little village. So, please, come visit and I will take you there. I promise, you do not need to eat the fish on a stick!

Yokohama Zoo

Many of you back home have expressed concern for our safety over the last couple weeks because the media has been reporting on 2 typhoons that have hit Japan. Thanks for all your concern. It's actually raining pretty hard as I write this and apparently today's typhoon hit very hard down south in Okinawa but, once it made contact with land it weakened a lot and now we are only experiencing moderate wind and rain. 

Look Mom, storm shutters!

Last weekend we had much stronger weather and Mike and Reese got to stay home from work and school. But, even though we are on the coast, we are well protected. Our house has metal storm shutters on all the windows so we moved everything inside and stayed indoors. We were fine. We have actually used the down time to watch some movies, bake cookies and just "veg out" as a family. 

In between the storms we've actually had some pretty decent weather. Yesterday we took a trip up to Yokohama (about 45 minutes by car) to go to the zoo, or Zoorasia as they call it. It was really one of the nicer zoo experiences I have had and I lived in San Diego and worked at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo so, I'm sure you consider me somewhat of an expert. 

 Reese - as calm as if she does this everyday.

Like the SD Zoo, the animal's environments  are as close as possible to what they would inhabit in the wild. Consequently it's beautifully landscaped with a lot to look at besides the animals. 

Quinn - doing his best Okapi impersonation.

The zoo was great deal, adults pay only 600 yen ($6) and kids are free! Mike and I both observed right away there was no real attempt to sell us anything; no expansive gift shops, no one trying to sell you kettle corn, pretzels or churros every 5 feet. In fact we walked around for about 20 minutes looking for ice cream.We joked that it was kind of insulting that no one was trying to price gouge us. How do they feed the animals if they aren't charging you $25 to park or get in?!?!?

It's also one of the more kid friendly zoos I know of. The play spaces were plentiful and very cool and there was no additional charge for any of it. 

Only the camel rides had a charge and that was only $5. What was nice was that you could only ride at specific times throughout the day. Thus eliminating long lines and giving the camels a break. (Sadly, this is not Reese on the camel. That time-slot was sold out and we left before the next one. Something to look forward to next time!)

At Zoorasia, kids can hang out in the upper branches with baby chimps.

Even though this zoo is actually larger in area than SD Zoo, there were only 2 or 3 places to buy food and it seemed like most of the patrons brought their own lunch anyway. 

There were large open areas with tables and shade to sit in. These sections were right near play spaces so kids could run around while the adults relaxed.  

The Japanese are really expert picnickers, they had blankets, roll out mats and they remove their shoes before cracking into their bento boxes filled with all kinds of tasty looking treats. 

We sat on the ground eating all-American PB&J, sliced apples and sipping from our water bottles.

All in all I'd say it was a perfect day to visit the zoo. The weather was cool enough that the animals were active but we were perfectly comfortable in short sleeves. It is a 3-day weekend for Mike (Columbus Day) and for the Japanese (Sports Day) but it wasn't very crowded. We had a great time!

Rubbish...and other customs

When I said I was moving to Japan my mother, (after she had stopped crying), told me that she had heard Japanese people were so clean, if they had some garbage when they were out they put it in their pocket until they got home to throw it away.
Now, this is very true but it's only a fraction of the story. Garbage here is a HUGE ordeal. We have 4 categories into which we have to sort our garbage: burnable (paper and food waste), bottles and cans, plastic and nonburnable (foil, lightbulbs etc.).

When we moved in we got a "handy" booklet detailing how to dispose of various items. (We got the gaijin version with English translation). For example all cardboard must be broken down, bundled and tied with twine, all food containers rinsed out, etc.

They pick up a different category every day and you can only bring the trash to the curb between 6am and 8am where you have to leave it under special nets until they pick it up. If you bring the wrong kind of trash they will not take it and instead they leave you a strongly worded note.

I completely understand why an overcrowded island nation would need to impose these policies but I do look forward to the days when all our trash can go into one or two bins. And I don't have to sort through bathroom trash to separate the empty toothpaste tubes from the toilet paper tubes. (It's worth noting that on the US Navy Base, you do not need to separate trash. Mike and I don't know if they pay someone to sort trash for the Americans or if they just don't bother.)

We are developing lots of new habits and adopting some of the Japanese customs while we're here. It makes me wonder which habits we'll keep when we return to the states.

Reese liked the novelty of eating with chopsticks in the beginning but now, we mostly use forks.

One thing I have come to love, especially as the person in charge of keeping house is the 'No Shoes Inside' Policy. They even abide by this at Reese's school. As part of the school supply list, all the kids have to bring shoes to change into while in the classroom. They leave their outside shoes by the door and change when they go to the playground or leave the building.

When we moved in, even the professional movers slipped their shoes off before trekking upstairs. Just imagine having to do that the next time you move or help someone move. More amazing is that these guys wouldn't even accept tips. The Japanese consider it an insult that we would tip them to do their job. Thankfully they did eat the pizza and sodas we bought them for lunch...a custom, that I believe, is considered acceptable world-wide.

Culture Shock

Everyone stationed at Yokosuka Naval base, including spouses, has to attend a week long AOB/ICR class. It stands for Area Orientation Brief/Inter-Cultural Relations. This is a prerequisite to get a drivers license and they use that as leverage to make sure you attend all 5 days. Mike attended when he first got here and I attended 2 weeks after we arrived. The class was interesting and may have been really helpful if I hadn't already heard the highlights from Mike.
But, free child care is provided and it was an opportunity for me to spend the day with other adults, mostly enlisted folk, but also other civilians who had also recently arrived in the country.
We learned a little of the history of Japan and quite a lot about the resources on base; the day care center does hourly care and has some Parents Night Out events, there is a whole department devoted to recreation, not just sports and fitness but also bus tours and day trips at various sights around Japan.
They even go over a few basic phrases and show you how to use public transit. I had already used the trains and buses many times so I skipped out early that day and went over to the nearby shopping mall.

This was a cultural experience in and of itself. First of all, I had only used the bathrooms in our house or on the base so I was not at all prepared for this:

 This "toilet" was in the women's bathroom (I double checked). The weirdest thing was they had regular toilets too. I guess these are just for the hard-core, old-school ladies who miss they days when they peed into a hole in the ground!

The stores are cute. I even found some things to try on. The sizes for clothes and shoes are way smaller than what I'm used to. When I went to go try some stuff on I committed the first of probably many faux pas. I forgot to take off my shoes! I knew to do that in people's homes but didn't realize the changing room required this as well. The kind sales lady reminded me.

In the dressing room, this sign greeted me: 

 Now...I don't read any Japanese but I think...I think, this is what they were going for:

 A nation of germaphobes. That's where I'm living.

All that shopping was making me hungry. Mike was meeting me during his lunch break and I was supposed to find a place to eat in the mall. I started to wander hoping I could find one of those picture menus to peruse. I found something better!

PLASTIC FOOD!!!

Genius! Makes it so easy for the tourists to pick a place to eat. It's helpful for us as parents too. You can see what they have for kids (bottom left) and know if your kids will eat it. 

I settled on a Sushi-go-Round style restaurant where the sushi and other items, like miso soup, french fries, fresh fruit, pastries, travel around by conveyor belt to your table. 

You can either grab what looks good as it sails by or order from touch screen computer built into the booth and your order will arrive special delivery. Let the plates stack up on the table and when you're finished they come around and charge you based on how many plates you have. (The different colors indicate different prices.)

So, I survived my solo excursion out to the mall. I bought 2 shirts. Found a yummy restaurant. But, the best part was, Mike and I got to enjoy our first meal without the kids in weeks. Complete with cheesecake!